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Malaysia bans Time issue
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MALAYSIA has banned the latest issue of Time magazine for insulting Islam by carrying an article with a picture of the Prophet Mohammad, a report said on Sunday.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, deputy prime minister was quoted by the Sunday Star newspaper as saying that Malaysia would not allow reading materials that insult Islam to be distributed in the country.
Islam forbids any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad.
Abdullah, who is a minister at the home (interior) ministry, described the action to recall the issue as appropriate.
The April 16 issue carries an article entitled "Jerusalem at the time of Jesus", by David Van Biema, containing a caricature of Prophet Mohammad meeting the archangel Gabriel to receive God's revelation.
Slightly more than half of Malaysia's 22 million people are Muslims.
"If there are other books and magazines with caricature of Prophet Muhammad, they also cannot be distributed because they hurt the feelings of Muslims and shame our religion," Abdullah added.
The ministry usually vetted the magazine before allowing it to be sold, Abdullah said, adding: "I don't know how but it seems that they have missed it. Once we found out about it, we withdrew (the permission)."
The Control of Publications and Film Division routinely inspects imported news magazines.
Last month Malaysia acknowledged that it was holding up sales of some foreign weekly news magazines. This is the first time for many years that it has delayed sales.(SD-Agencies)
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